The Rose Mercenaries Path
by Phoenix Champion
Summary: What was supposed to be a final test for Yang and Ruby to become full members of their families mercenary group has begun to spiral out into something far greater when they find the Atlesian Princess, Weiss Schnee, injured on the path during their return home. The only question is, just how far will things spiral out? (Medieval A.U.)
1. Chapter 1

**Hello guy's Phoenix Champion with Yet another story for you all.**

 **Yes, I know I have enough to do as it is, but this is something that's been gnawing at me all week.**

 **Flarea: Basically Phoenix has delved into reading Medieval RWBY A.U.'s lately because for some reason out of all the stories he's following so little has actually been updating.**

 **Lloyd: So in the end Phoenix ended up growing the urge to write one of these.**

 **Marie: This might actually be good for his creativity, or his lack thereof.**

 **Phoenix: I heard that.**

 **Anyway this might not update too often at the start because I will be honest, I have no idea what I'm doing right now. This is something I'm most likely going to work more on when my other stories have matched RWBY canon, so I don't end up losing my touch during the hiatus I'll be put into waiting for the current season to end so I can continue the story.**

 **Also this story will not be held back by canon at all, meaning this will only stop when I hit the dreaded wall of writers block.**

 **Anyway, I'm going to start this up now, everyone enjoy.**

 **[[]]**

Four figure's rode swiftly through a forest path, each one on a horse.

The leading figure rode a white mare, she wore a white cloak as it billowed through the air, under that cloak one could see she had silver eyes and black hair with red tips. She had on a mail made of silver metal links over a black tunic, her legs were covered by some simple leather greaves with a pair of leather boots.

This was Summer Rose, a woman often considered a powerful Sorceress.

Just behind her was a blonde man with rather short hair and lilac eyes riding a tan horse, he wore a leather chest piece and left his arms open to the elements, save for a single shoulder guard on his right arm, his legs covered by cloth greaves that hid silver chain mail that was carefully and skillfully sewn into the pants. On his hands were a pair of steel gauntlets that were spiked at the knuckles.

This was Taiyang Xiao Long, a Pugilist fighter that most would avoid fighting in close combat.

To Taiyang's right, riding a black horse, was a more heavily armored woman, wearing black armor that covered most of her body, said armor highlighted in red at the edges, she wore a helmet designed after the face of a Grimm known as a Nevermore, this helmet perfectly covered her face, though it left her remarkably long black hair flow free in the wind. Sheathed at her hip was an abnormally long katana.

This was Raven Branwen, a relentless Dark Knight that has left no surviving opponents, save for sparring matches.

Finally to Taiyang's left, also riding a black horse, was a man with short black hair, red eyes, and a stubble of a beard, he wore a simple steel hauberk over a grey tunic, and a pair of steel shin guards, as well as a tattered cloak that flowed behind him. Latched to his back was a large scythe with a curved handle.

This was Qrow Branwen, a Reaper class warrior, not a type of fighter often seen due to how dangerous a scythe can be without proper training.

"Summer, you do remember where we are going right?" Tai called ahead over the wind.

"Of course I remember Tai." Summer called back, "Remember the whole time we were setting up our new home I was studying the map of Vale, I know exactly where Oakheart is."

"If I recall this town was cleared out before the Grimm approached, what's the rush?" Qrow called.

"I am _not_ leaving Ruby or even Yang alone in that place with Port or Oobleck there!" Summer shouted.

"She's got a point." Raven said, "I'd trust Port to drive Yang to sleep with those awful stories of him, but to babysit? Hell no."

"And Tai!" Summer called back, "I know we're dealing with Grimm, weak ones at that, but if you get yourself injured again through your hardheadedness then so help me Oum you will be cleaning the whole Fort for half a year starting with the second you've fully recovered!"

Summer was being serious about this, last time she swore something would happen Raven found her hot bath turn cold in a flash freeze.

"R-right." Tai said. Summer had a mischievous streak, and it made Tai worry that if he got stuck cleaning the fort for six months, Summer might intentionally make things harder for him by making more messes for him to clean up.

"Nevermore!" Qrow called looking up.

Summer's head snapped up as she saw a medium sized avian Grimm, she threw out her left hand, which quickly became coated in ice, she then swung her left hand toward the Nevermore, which shot out an icicle that impaled the Nevermore through the neck, killing the Grimm.

"Our first job as mercenaries huh?" Qrow said.

"Yep." Summer said, "The Valesian Knight's were good, but they had so many restrictions."

"They wouldn't even have let me join the training courses because I'm a Dark Knight if it weren't for King Ozpin vouching for me." Raven grumbled.

"Bastards." Qrow muttered.

"At least the good king's pushing to allow Knights to fight however they feel the most comfortable right now." Tai said.

[]

The four mercenaries arrived in the small village of Oakheart less than an hour later, the place was void of Human's or Faunus, yet there was a whole pack of Beowolves milling about in the town square.

"Least kill's pay for lunch." Tai said leaping off his horse and sprinting toward the Beowolves.

"Idiot." Raven said getting off of her horse and drawing her sword, and dashed toward the group of Grimm.

"And yet she's had a kid with said idiot before breaking up with him." Qrow said with a chuckle as he pulled his scythe off his back, and rode his horse toward the Grimm.

"And I took him from under her nose before she could get him back." Summer said smirking before she disappeared in a flash, reappearing ahead of Tai, "Too slow Tai." Summer teased before she called down a bolt of lightning on the nearest Beowolf.

"Ah, no fair Sum." Tai said throwing a haymaker at a Beowolf that got close to him, snapping it's next from the sheer force.

Raven made her way to the nearest Grimm and cleaved it in half with a single slash of her katana, before spinning to stab a second Grimm. Raven looked to the Grimm stalking closer to her, "Next." Raven said.

Qrow leaped off his horse at last and drove his scythe into the skull of the nearest Grimm before vaulting over said Grimm and pulling his scythe through it's head and beheading another.

Summer found Tai at her back before she smirked, throwing her hand upward Summer created several spikes of earth that killed off several Grimm.

"That's not fair." Tai said as he continued throwing punches almost wildly at the nearby Grimm.

"Sucks to be you Tai." Qrow said.

"I offered to at least give you some Dust enhanced gauntlets, but nooooo." Summer mocked, "You wanted to keep it simple."

"You're behind on all of us in that regard Tai." Raven said as she slashed through another Grimm, "And that should be the last."

"22." Qrow said.

"25." Raven said with a chuckle.

"21." Tai sighed.

"Look's like lunch is coming out of your wallet Tai." Summer said as she dusted off her cloak, then froze, "Wait... who got the- AHHHHH!"

"SUMMER!" Tai shouted as the Alpha Beowolf had come out from hiding and struck Summer in the side, clawing a large gash just below her hauberk.

Raven reacted the fastest, her katana creating at wispy trail of darkness as she swung through the Alpha, tearing the Grimm in two.

"Tai get the medical kit." Qrow said as he quickly covered the wound.

"Looks like... The scores... twenty six... to twenty six... Rae" Summer said, trying to control her breaths.

"Summer, save your breath." Raven said as Tai ran over with the medical kit.

"Fine... I'm gonna... take a nap..." Summer wheezed, "Wake me up... when we get back home." she finished closing her eyes.

"Summer..." Tai said worried, "SUMMER!"

[14 years later]

"Gwah!" A woman groaned as she fell over from the strike to the gut.

The woman was a 17 year old blonde with lilac eyes, her hair was almost as long as Raven's, she was wearing a simple brown tunic and loose yellow pants.

"Ow." The woman groaned.

Raven gave a slight huff as she watched her Daughter get knocked over by her father's punch.

"I told you Yang, you would have done better in the ways of the Dark Knight." Raven said, her helmet gone, revealing her red eyes.

"Yeah, but fighting with my bare hands is so much more exhilarating." Yang said getting back up.

"You sure you and Ruby want to take the test?" Tai asked throwing a few mock punches at Yang.

"Dad, Ruby and I have trained for years, we're ready." Yang said blocking the punches.

"Where is Ruby anyway?" Raven asked.

"In the forge." Tai said.

"Raven, Dad, Yang!" Ruby called running up to the trio, carrying a large red cloth bundle with her.

Ruby looked like a miniature version of her mother, Summer, except she wore a red cloak instead of a white one.

"I stand corrected." Tai said, only to get gut punched by Yang, "Okay..." Tai wheezed, "I'll give you that one Yang."

"You finished it already Ruby?" Raven asked slightly proud of Summer's daughter.

"Yep" Ruby said putting the bundle on the bench next to Raven and tore the cloth off revealing the weapon.

The weapon was a large scythe made of red tinged steel save for the blade, it had a straight handle unlike Qrow's scythe. The blade was made of platinum, which was an expensive material to get and normally Rookie Smith's were not allowed to use such a material.

Of course, Ruby was an incredible blacksmith, the moment she began to practice the art she out did many people who had started at the same time she did.

"What's her name?" Raven asked running a hand across the blade of the scythe.

"Crescent Rose." Ruby said proudly.

"Nice name." Yang said picking up the gauntlets Ruby had made for her a month ago.

The gauntlet's were yellow tinged and made of steel, they had small spikes at the knuckles but if one looked closely they would see flecks of red Dust mixed into the metal, giving them a fire property that could be toggled on or off. They were called Ember Celica.

Soon enough Qrow came over, "Lunch is ready everyone!" Qrow called.

"You didn't spike anything with alcohol this time right Qrow?" Raven asked, "Last time you were in the kitchen fifteen years ago we all got drunk from the booze you poured into the soup and I woke up buck naked in bed with Summer."

"I did NOT need to hear that." Yang said walking ahead.

"What's so bad about being naked in bed toget-" Ruby started before she realized something, "Aw Auntie Raven that's nasty!" Ruby shouted running off.

[]

The group arrived at dinning room of the fort they called home, where they saw the table had a feast perfect for the number of people attending, not too much or too little.

"Alright Everyone, Dig in!" Summer called as she already sat at the table, eating a turkey leg.

"Hey no fair Mom!" Ruby cried out tearing the other leg off the roasted turkey.

 **[[]]**

 **Alright everyone, what did you think?**

 **Now, everyone in this story will have a 'Job' or 'Class' or however you want to refer to their skill set as.**

 **This makes things easier for me to write this.**

 **Anyway I hope you all enjoyed this and I'll see you... sometime soon hopefully.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Alright Ladies and Gentlemen, I seem to have gotten some rather good response from the first chapter of this story so I will be continuing this.**

 **Now something important for you all to know is that at the end of each Chapter I will be putting in a description of each newly introduced Class or Concept for this story.**

 **That means at the the end of this chapter I will be explaining... 5 classes in my own words, and three concepts.**

 **So if you don't read these opening and closing Authors notes then that means you are shit outta luck and you don't even know it.**

 **Anyway, I hope you all enjoy this.**

 **[[]]**

Summer stood next to a large board for plans, in front of her sat Ruby, Yang, Tai, Raven, and Qrow.

"Alright, listen up everyone while I go over the summary of today's mission!" Summer called out as she pointed thin trainer sword at a map, specifically at Fort Rose (As that is what Summer named their home base) she then traced her sword down the road and stopped at a coastal town called Port Coral, leaving a glowing trail because of the magic she poured into the trainer, "The people of Port Coral have received information that the Faunus terrorist group, The White Fang, plans to attack their rather lovely town today at 3 in the afternoon."

"Any reason why the White Fang plan to attack them?" Raven asked.

"Locals suspect it is because of the mass number of Feline Faunus that are there, thus meaning the White Fang has likely confused the fact that so many of those Faunus work on fishing boats that they are enslaved." Summer explained, "I was there two weeks ago for fresh seafood if you recall and I saw no sign of Faunus slavery."

"Who's the person who tipped the town off?" Ruby asked.

"I'm afraid the townfolk couldn't say." Summer said, "All they know was that it was a woman wearing a black cloak."

"So," Qrow said, "Any restrictions?"

"Just the usual for White Fang encounters." Summer said, then she remembered Ruby and Yang didn't know how they handled White Fang, "By that I mean capture is optional, but not fully necessary, however the more White Fang we can get locked up the better a chance we have to get information on their latest plans."

"Okay then." Yang said.

"Also, Tai, and by extension you now Yang, I want to see as little collateral damage as possible." Summer said sternly, "Last time we went into a town for a defensive mission we lost most of our payment covering the damages caused by you Tai."

"It was just a market stall." Tai grumbled.

Tai should not have said that as Summer teleported over to him and lifted him by his ear, "Taiyang Xiao-Long you destroyed a stall that dealt in glassware, and that took 700 Lien out of our 800 Lien paycheck!" Summer shouted into his ear.

"Ow.." Tai whimpered.

"Alright, is everyone ready?" Summer asked, getting a series of nods, "Good, get your horses, it's a two hour ride to Port Coral and when the White Fang attacks a ton as undefended as them they usually don't send in too many troops, so the most we'll have to worry about it a raiding captain if they send in one. All in all we'll be home in roughly five hours."

"A quick job then, I like it." Qrow said.

"Alright, let's move people!" Summer commanded moving to the stables.

[]

It was as Summer said, the ride to Port Coral took only a little less than two hours, and the mercenaries left their horses at the stables.

"This place looks ready for battle." Yang noted looking around, now wearing a sharkskin vest over some chain mail with a pair of steel greaves under her pants.

"The must have already moved anyone who can't fight out of town." Ruby guessed not seeing any children around. Ruby was now wearing a steel hauberk on her chest with her red hooded cloak flowing freely behind her, on her legs were a pair of well crafted steel greaves.

"Everyone here is scared." Raven said looking around, windows were boarded up and the few people around had a shaky grip on the weapons they had, "We shouldn't be too unprepared for a Grimm attack during this."

"Don't be so gloomy Raven." Tai said, "Seriously it'll probably help slow the Grimm a bit."

"Shut up Tai." Qrow said dismounting his horse, "Now then, do we have any clue as to where the White Fang will be attacking from?"

"The front gate." Summer said walking up to the town entrance and looking around at it, "They don't have many ships that we know of, nor would they risk what ships they do have in an attack on a small town like this." Summer knelt down as put her hand to the ground, which in turn created a pale blue seal on the ground, "Geez, wish we had some normal traps, Trap Seals are easier to spot compared to regular traps." Summer mumbled as she cast another spell over the Trap Seal, dulling the glow.

"Okay." Ruby said pulling Crescent Rose off her back and taking a hidden position behind the first shop, which happened to be the blacksmiths workshop, "Iron, decent quality, most are fishing spears. Makes sense." Ruby mumbled looking inside briefly.

[]

At 3 O'clock sharp the White Fang showed up, Raven peeked at them from her 'perch' that was behind the blacksmith's chimney, she lifted up the visor piece of her Grimm masked helmet and put her binoculars to her eyes.

She looked over to Summer a waved her hand twice, a sign to set up a telepathic link to the rest of the mercenaries.

 _'Alright every one, these guys look to be about as armed as a local militia, I'm seeing simple sword and axe users.'_ Raven informed telepathically, _'I'm seeing one spear user in the group though, and she is wearing more than chain mail so she must the one leading this assault.'_

 _'Well that's perfect actually, no one long ranged.'_ Summer said.

 _'Get ready.'_ Raven finished.

The first group of White Fang stepped onto Summers Trap Seal, which exploded into a massive ice crystal that impaled a good number of White Fang.

"Go!" Summer shout warping in and shattering her ice crystal with a blast of lightning, sending out shards of ice that killed off several more White Fang.

"Ambush!" A White Fang member shouted before Yang and Tai came up behind him and punched him on each side of the head, killing him instantly.

"Shit!" Another shouted as Raven jumped down and crushed him under her while impaling him through his head.

"What the hell? I thought this place had weak defenses!?" Another shouted before his head flew off thanks to Qrow's scythe.

The raiding captain of the White Fang group looked around to see just how fast her troops were falling, "Screw this I'm outta here." She said turning around, only to freeze upon seeing someone had managed to get behind her.

"Hi." Ruby said just before she swung her scythe.

For her credit, the raiding captain lifted her spear just in time to block the attack, but unfortunately it did nothing and resulted in her spear getting cut in half, "Shit." The captain said before Ruby's boot met her face.

[]

"Alright, what's the body count?" Summer asked Qrow as the citizens of the town piled up the dead White Fang to burn in a pyre.

"15 Killed in battle and 10 captured, including the raiding captain." Qrow said.

"Great." Summer said looking over to Ruby and Yang, the two girls clearly excited that they had passed their first mission, "I left their badges back at the fort didn't I?"

"Yep." Raven said handing off a torch to a passing citizen.

"Crap." Summer groaned, "Ruby! Yang! Let's get going, the sooner we get home to sooner I can make you official members of this mercenary group!" Summer called.

[]

"Oh this is so exciting I can't wait to get home!" Ruby cheered as she rode atop her tan mare.

"Calm down Ruby." Yang said, "Let's not get too ahead of ourselves now or you might smack your head on that stray branch like you did coming here."

"Yang I won't do that- WHOA!" Ruby shouted jerking back on the reigns of her horse, causing it to slide to a stop, Yang doing the same.

"What's going on up here?" Summer asked slowing to a stop next to Ruby, "Oh. Oh that's not good."

Lying face down on the road was a woman about Yang's age with long white hair tied in a ponytail, she was wearing a black cloak over her body and next the her was a broken sword, at least the half with the grip.

The other half of the sword was stuck in a dissolving Beowolf.

Summer hopped off her horse and flipped the woman over, revealing a three clawed gash on her abdomen and a vertical cut over her left eye, which was covering her eye in blood.

"First Aid kit!" Summer called, with Qrow quickly tossing it to her. With the kit in her hands she cracked it open and quickly bandaged up the wounds she could see then picked her up. "We're taking her with us, Ruby, grab the weapon she left if you want some more scraps."

Ruby jumped off her horse and picked up both halves of the sword and stored them in her pack and hopped back up on the horse.

"Let's go, double time!" Summer commanded. spurring her horse onward.

[]

Summer sighed as she sat down in a seat next to her patient.

The woman's wounds were now closed thanks to her magic, however there would now be a scar over her left eye, thankfully she would still be able to see out of it without issue.

Still, Summer couldn't shake the feeling this girl was familiar to her somehow.

"I guess that's a mystery for another time." Summer said to herself standing up and walking out of the room, Raven and Yang sat near the door waiting for her, "Will you tell me when she's awake Raven?" Summer asked, "I've set up a telepathic link with you so I can get here fast."

"Sure, you go get Ruby ad give her and Yang their badge." Raven said.

"I know Rae." Summer sighed, "I'm not as forgetful as Tai. Come on Yang, Ruby should be in the smithy."

Summer and Yang walked toward the smithy, the hallways having plenty of windows to let light in so it's not dark and gloomy, as well as enchanted crystals to light up the place at night. Yang couldn't help but look outside to see the setting sun over the forest, it was always a beautiful sight to her and Ruby.

Summer soon reached the steel door that was the smithy's entrance and pushed it open, the door enchanted as to not accumulate heat from the smithy.

The inside of the smithy was fairly simple, it had a stone pit filled with lava, the stones enchanted to never heat up or leak out the molten rock, next to it was a trough filled with water to cool the metal. On the wall was a series of hammers of multiple varieties, nearby was a smelter that was used to melt down ores and metals into ingots. An anvil for the shaping of metals, and a workbench for the more complicated parts of making weapons and armor. Further more there was a shelf filled with scrolls and design plans for making all sorts of weapons and armors. And crates filled with metal ingots, and separate crates filled with unsmelted ores and broken weaponry. Nearby those were crates filled with weapons that were forged and were to be sent out to be sold at the end of the week. There was a table in the middle of the room for miscellaneous use. And finally the room was lined Ice Dust Crystals to keep the room from feeling like an oven.

Simple... for Summer at least.

At the moment Ruby was sitting with her back to the door examining the weapon they had recovered from the road with the woman.

"I'm surprised that you haven't melted it down yet sweetie." Summer said walking next to her daughter.

"I would have in a heart beat, but look at the blade." Ruby said holding up the lower half of the sword by it's hilt.

Summer took the blade from Ruby and looked closely at the blade, then she saw what Ruby was talking about. Focusing Runes lined the flat of the blade, "A spellsword." Summer said.

"Yep, a Sabre model spellsword." Ruby said, "And from the look of the runes I'd say that she's a Spellblade, but hasn't really tapped into her magic abilities just yet. However the runes seem worn so this might be a hand-me-down weapon."

"I see..." Summer said, "Ruby, you remember how to carve Focusing runes into things right?"

"Duh, it was the second thing you taught me about forging." Ruby said.

"Good, because repairing a Focus like a Spellsword is just like making a new one." Summer said, then she pulled Ruby out of her seat, "Now come on, we're doing the official welcome to our band in the courtyard, there you will be given your official Rose Mercenary badge."

"Oh goodie!" Ruby said as she started to drag her mother along.

[]

Summer stood in front of Ruby and Yang in the center of the courtyard, the outdoor picnic table had been moved aside, along with the practice dummies which normally there were five of lying out in the open ready to take a beating.

Currently Tai and Qrow stood at attention behind Summer.

"Ahem." Summer said clearing her throat, "Yang Xiao Long and Ruby Rose. Today you have successfully completed your initiation test for the Rose Mercenaries, as such I am honored as both leader of the Rose Mercenaries, and as a mother, to present you two with your official Rose Mercenary Badge of recognition." With that Summer held out two dark grey, kite shield shaped badges the size of her hands, in the middle of said badge was a white rose emblem on each of them, as well as a second emblem on each one, the one that was given to Ruby had a red rose on it while the one handed to Yang had a burning heart on it. "Wear them with pride you two." Summer said.

"We will." Ruby and Yang said, Ruby pinned her badge to her cloak and Yang pinned hers to her cloak.

Summer stepped forward and pulled Ruby into a hug, "I'm so proud of you Ruby." Summer said.

 _'Summer, I hope I'm not interrupting the ceremony, but the girl's woken up.'_ Raven said telepathically.

 _'Actually I just finished, you can come give your girl a hug now, I'll check up on the patient.'_ Summer replied, "Rubes, the girl we rescued just woke up, I need to go check on her okay?"

"Sure mom." Ruby said with a nod, "I'll be in the forge."

With that Summer nodded and teleported to the infirmary.

[]

Weiss Schnee, second daughter of the Atlesian King Jacques Schnee, had fled from her fathers castle, escaped to Vale, and found herself attacked by a Beowolf and managed to kill it before passing out from her injuries.

So naturally she was not expecting to wake up in a grey stone room on a surprisingly soft bed next to an open window.

"Where...?" Weiss said trailing off to look around, she saw her black traveling cloak and her white dress, both of which had a large tear in them, making them unrepairable and unwearable.

"You're in Fort Rose, more specifically our infirmary." Summer said entering the room, "How are you feeling?"

"Better than I had expected to be honest." Weiss said, "Who are you?"

"Summer Rose, leader of the Rose Mercenaries." Summer said, "And you are?"

Weiss was silent for a moment, "Weiss." She finally said.

Summer smirked and snapped her fingers, "Ah, now I realize why you're so familiar, you're Weiss Schnee. King Jacques's second Daughter." Summer said, "I gotta admit though, you look a lot different than when you were a baby, and a lot less smelly."

"Hey!" Weiss cried out sitting up, noticing she was wearing a simple white nightgown.

"It true." Summer said with a smile on her face, that smile faded in almost an instant, "So what are you doing way out here in Vale?"

Weiss looked downward, "I ran away." Weiss said, "My father is so cruel to everyone in the castle and I honestly can't take it anymore. He see's me and my brother and sister as nothing more than tools to increase the families popularity and squash all the rumors about us. Winter's taken up a position as Captain to the Alteasian Knights, and Whitley's and I are being raised up similarly."

"I see." Summer said, "Well Weiss, I can assure you that the Rose Mercenaries will give you shelter if you so wish."

"I... can't ask you to do that for me." Weiss said looking at her blanket.

"I never said the shelter would come free." Summer said, a glint in her silver eye.

"Huh?" Weiss said jerking her head back up.

"You'd have to do something for us, we don't exactly let people loaf around here, so that means earning your keep." Summer said.

Weiss was silent for another moment, "Can I get a tour around the place before I make my decision?" Weiss asked.

"Of course you can." Summer said reaching into the drawer near Weiss and pulling out a pair of white slippers, "Here, you can wear these until we reach the storage room, hopefully we have something that could fit you in there."

"Hopefully?" Weiss asked.

"We tend to stock a lot of casual clothes, mainly due to the fact that Yang and Raven have a bad habit of starting fights." Summer said handing the slippers to Weiss.

[]

"Alright, first stop, and by extension the nearest is the kitchen." Summer said opening the door to the room, which was laid out very simply in fact, a cast iron oven next to a grill, which was next to a table that had an assortment of knives on it. Several pots and pans were hanging on the wall nearby and Weiss noticed there were two other doors.

"Where do those doors lead?" Weiss asked.

"Well, the door directly in front of us leads to the dining room, though we sometimes eat in the courtyard on nice days." Summer said with a smile, "And the door to our left leads to the pantry, which has another room that leads to a room frozen with Ice Dust that we keep other foods cold until we need them."

"Who normally cooks?" Weiss asked.

"Well, it was supposed to be a rotation between everyone who lives here, but Qrow kept putting alcohol in everything and Tai can't cook for shit." Summer said, "So that usually means Me, Ruby, Yang, and Raven takes turns cooking nowadays."

"Okay then." Weiss said, "How bad was Tai's cooking?"

"I'd accidentally eaten dirt once before." Summer said, "It actually tasted better than Tai's cooking."

Weiss shuddered at the thought of that.

[]

"Next up, we have our Weapon and Armor storage room." Summer said opening another door.

Weiss looked inside to see that there were weapon racks, armor stands, and even tables hugging the walls, and all of them had weapons lining them, or had armor on them, or were cluttered in spare parts.

"You have a lot of weapons." Weiss noted.

"My daughter's a bit of a weapons nut, she also likes to make sure we have weapons and parts to spare in case something of ours break." Summer said.

"Oh, that makes sense." Weiss said stepping inside to look around, she saw that on the tables wore poles, both wooden and metal, straight and curved along with scythe blades made of various metals. She then looked to the other tables to see they had spare pieces of spiked metal that looked to be apart of gauntlets, all of them yellow and melded with Fire Dust. Then she looked at the various katana that lined the wall, but when Weiss took a closer look at the katana's she gasped and stepped back.

"What's wrong?" Summer asked.

"What's wrong?" Weiss asked in shock, "Every single one of those katana are melded with Black Dust!" Weiss snapped.

Summer blinked, "Oh right, I forget that so many people aren't as open minded about Black Dust as we are." Summer said sheepishly, "Anyway the reason we have so many katana made with Black Dust is because Raven is a Dark Knight, meaning she is trained to use this stuff."

"A Dark Knight?" Weiss asked in surprise, "I've never met a Dark Knight before, Black Dust usage is completely outlawed in Atlas, at least, if you were born in Atlas it is illegal to use Black Dust, they can barely tolerate people from other continents using Black Dust, but it's only allowed because of different customs from other kingdoms."

"Oh man, that's a bit of a shock." Summer said, "I didn't know that Jacques was that upset about how reckless the Atlesians were being about Black Dust."

"It didn't help that everyone was so stuck up they tried to teach themselves." Weiss said.

"That is the dumbest thing I've ever heard." Summer said sternly, "The path of the Dark Knight demands tutelage from an experienced Dark Knight, or at least someone directly related to a Dark Knight."

"Huh?" Weiss asked.

"Raven has been teaching Yang to safely use Black Dust every since Raven decided Yang was ready to learn how to use it." Summer said, "Raven's mother did the same for Raven and Qrow after all." Summer said.

[]

"Alright, next is the smithy." Summer said opening the door, and saw Ruby sleeping face first on the table in the middle of the room, "And allow me to introduce my daughter Ruby."

As if on cue Ruby snored rather loudly.

"I... see..." Weiss said as Summer tapped Ruby on the shoulder.

"Huh? Oh hi mom." Ruby said jerking up, "And hello miss." she added seeing Weiss.

"Hello." Weiss said, then she noticed the broken sword on the table, "Oh man..." Weiss groaned picking up the pieces of the blade, "Winter's gave this to me as a birthday present."

"I could fix it if you want." Ruby offered.

"Thanks. But I honestly feel like I won't be able to rely on it as much anymore." Weiss said.

"I can make you a new weapon if you want then." Ruby offered.

"Really?" Weiss asked.

"Yep." Ruby said popping the 'P', "Anything you want it to be specifically?"

"I trained more with a Rapier so do you think you can make a Rapier based Spellsword?" Weiss asked, "I'm sorry if it's a bit much to ask."

Ruby burst out laughing, "Oh it's no problem at all, I've been making Spellswords for years." Ruby said hopping out of her chair and running over to her chest filled with various ingots, "Got any special request for the material used?"

"Not really." Weiss said.

"Okay then." Ruby said clapping her hands together, "I'll make your weapon, and then fix up that old sabre you had. Now let's see..." Ruby then trailed off in her talking as she dug into her chest of ingots.

"Is she..." Weiss asked.

"Oh don't worry, my little girl is the best darn blacksmith you'd find within a week of Vale." Summer said with a smile.

[]

"And now we reach the general storage room." Summer said opening the door to said room.

It was very simple in Weiss's opinion, it was filled with crates that were labelled as wood, cloth, clothes, Dust, furs, and basically all the things that didn't really have a place outside of the normal rooms. But Weiss noticed something as Summer dug through a box labelled 'clothes' "Hey, do you have any books around here?" Weiss asked.

"Sorry, no, our library's roof caved in because a tree fell over during the last storm and that pretty much ruined all our books." Summer said, "Good news is that I've kept a list of all the books we had and have placed orders for replacements and all the rare books had a spell placed on them to protect them from damage." With that Summer pulled out a simple set of white clothes, "Here, these should fit you." Summer said handing the clothes to Weiss.

"Thank you." Weiss said.

[]

"And finally we have our bedrooms." Summer said leading Weiss into a hallway with dozens of doors in it, most of which were lacking nameplates, "I don't think any explaining is necessary."

"True enough." Weiss said as Summer stopped in front of a door with no name plate on it.

"So Weiss, are you willing to stay?" Summer asked.

Weiss was silent for three full minutes, "Sure." Weiss said.

"Great." Summer said pulling out a copper name plate and putting it on the door, eye level to herself, "So, how do you want to help around the place?"

"If you don't mind..." Weiss said slowly, "I'd like to help as a mercenary myself, if only to spit on my father's pride."

Summer smiled, "Alright then, of course you'll have to take a bit of an initiation test next time we have a mission before you're a full fledged mercenary of ours though and that may take a while." Summer said.

Weiss then noticed it was starting to get dark outside, "It's getting late actually." Weiss said.

Summer looked out the window and saw the same. "Yeah, I guess your right, let's head to the dining room, Raven's cooking tonight, I'll give you the official introduction to the group then." Summer said.

"Thanks, just... leave out my last name please." Weiss asked.

Summer simply smiled and nodded, "Of course."

"By the way miss Rose, is that ring your Focus as a Witch?" Weiss asked.

"Hmm?" Summer asked, looking at her ring, "Oh, oh no, that's my wedding ring. As a Sorceress I don't need a Focus like a Wizard or Witch does, and I can use a far wider range of spells than a Mage can."

"Oh, my mistake." Weiss said sheepishly.

Summer gave Weiss a hearty pat on the back, "That's alright, you're not the first to make that mistake."

 **[[]]**

 **Holy shit that chapter was longer than I thought it would be. Anyway as I promised, the descriptions.**

 **[Classes]**

 **Sorceress: A powerful spellcaster that is not restricted to a single element like a Mage, or needs a Focus like a Wizard or a Witch does. Having such a diversity of spells is what makes a Sorceress such a feared opponent on the battlefield. Although Being friends with a Sorceress means your life will never be dull.**

 **Reaper: A scythe wielding warrior, rarely seen due to how hard it is to properly wield a scythe, to meet a well trained Reaper on the battlefield is to meet Death. In fact, rumors say that the first Reaper was trained by Death himself, other rumors say that Death gives those that follow this battle style a special gift.**

 **Pugilist: A fighter that doesn't care if their hands get dirty, or bloody for that matter. A Pugilist will get right in the opponents face, which may not sound like a good idea at first, but they make it a pretty good idea.'**

 **Dark Knight: A rather frowned upon Class because of their use of Black Dust. One of the few Classes in the world that demand a teacher in the style in order to survive very long because of the dangers of Black Dust. Do not take a Dark Knight on the battlefield lightly. People said Dark Knight's teach their kin how to use Black Dust safely regardless of the Career path they choose.**

 **Spellblade: A Unique fighter that uses a sword as their magic Focus, however they normally use magic as an augmentation to their actual skill in swordsmanship. Spellblades are mainly seen in family lines due to the complexity in the style and the need to access magic.**

 **[Concepts]**

 **Focus: An object that a Wizard or Witch uses to channel their magic. The only successful Focus's that have been discovered at Rings, Wands, Rods, Staves and Swords for Spellblades. Any other Focus has either fizzled out or backfired.**

 **Black Dust: A Rare and dangerous Dust type, capable of tripling someones power, however this can quickly kill the user if they use it directly, thus making it necessary to merge it with a weapon, and even then it is dangerous to the user. Current usage records with no backfire are ten brief bursts within a three hour time frame, and ten minutes of continuous use with a three hour period of no usage. And more or longer attempts have have proven extremely hazardous to the user and can cause extensive internal damage. Damage taken from over use of Black Dust can take at least a month and a half to recover from, plus another month of recovery time so it is safe to use Black Dust.**

 **Spellsword: A difficult to forge weapon as it requires a spellcaster with understanding of Focus Runes to assist in the forging, or a Blacksmith with that knowledge. As such a Spellsword is rare and expensive to collect and are normally commissioned rather than bought normally. Furthermore Spellsword's are only found and forged as a single handed sword due to it's smaller size not diluting the magic channeling through it, plus a Spellblade isn't likely to be very effective using a two-handed sword.**

 **[End notes]**


	3. Chapter 3

**Alright folks, it's time for another chapter of Rose Mercenaries.**

 **Now then, something that a couple of people said to me in a few reviews, you know who you are, at least you will know by the end of this.**

 **I didn't respond to you directly because I figured that this is something that I would best explain in an authors note at the beginning of this chapter.**

 **About my descriptions of the area's or lack thereof. Listen people, this is my at this stuff really, and as like any new thing working with it takes a bit of time to actually get used to writing out long detailed descriptions of the area just yet, hell this story is going to probably be my basis for working on a lot of my skills that would be implemented into future works for me okay?**

 **And if you (For some reason) want an in-story reason for why there was very little in depth area description, well here's something to sate your curiosity for the moment. Previously the view sorta centered around Summer, who knew the place rather well and as such didn't really look too closely at her own home. Weiss on he other hand hasn't even seen the place from outside, so she can't really get a good look at the fort she's currently in.**

 **Also for the guy, I won't say who, that said Weiss was being a little too nice for her initial personality, keep you pants on will you? That's coming alright just wait a bit, it'll show up in this chapter for what I have planned.**

 **Furthermore my friend, is that this story will mainly be in 3rd person, but when we switch to another character to focus on we will be seeing into that person's head... mostly. Basically while this won't be a 1st Person story, it will not be 3rd person Omniscient (Go look that up if you don't know the meaning).**

 **Alright, and to the guy who complained that I was being a little too blunt about the 'classes' that the characters have, don't worry, that was basically just the set up, from this point on the characters will determine people's classes through context clues... more or less. BUT that also means that the class description will not appear until the Class has officially been announced in the story okay? Okay.**

 **Now then is that everything? *Picks up clipboard and skims it* Yeah pretty much, okay let's get this chapter started.**

 **[[]]**

Weiss followed Summer to the dining room, and looking around she had to admit one thing, despite the rather unusual choice of lighting, the fort didn't look at all creepy at night, unlike other fort's she had been forced to visit with her father.

"Okay Weiss, I fell like there is one thing I should warn you about before we go in." Summer said stopping Weiss at the door.

"And that is?" Weiss asked nervously.

"If you want any turkey, you better grab it before Yang or Raven." Summer said with a surprising amount of seriousness in her voice, "Qrow was the first to learn that lesson."

Weiss nodded in slight confusion and fear before Summer opened the door with a wave of her hands. Revealing the rest of the Mercenaries already sitting at the large wooden table. Everyone had a plate that was filled with a grilled fish of some sort that Weiss couldn't identify, a helping of chopped up carrots, and about half of a sliced up apple, while a turkey sat on a platter in the middle of the table. Looking around the room Weiss could see it was rather bare, save for the lighting crystals and the set of five clear glass pane windows on the far wall.

"Hi mom!" Ruby called standing up in her seat to wave to Summer, Weiss noticed that next to Ruby's plate was a plate full of cookies.

'Why cookies?' Weiss thought as Summer showed her to a seat to take, which was between Ruby's seat and Raven's seat.

"Ahem!" Summer called out, mainly getting the attention of Tai and Qrow who were in the middle of an arm wrestling contest, this caused Qrow to win as Tai turned away, "Okay boy and girls, as you know Ruby and Yang are officially full fledged members of our little mercenary crew."

"You know it! right sis?" Yang cheered reaching over to high five Ruby.

'Sis?' Weiss thought with a raised eyebrow.

"Now as we also know, during the ride home we found our newest guest, Miss Weiss, lying face down on the road with a broken Spellsword at her side." Summer continued, "And just a few moments before we came in for dinner, Weiss here asked to join the Rose Mercenaries."

"Still think you've got a bit of and ego problem." Qrow called, "Rose Mercenaries, Fort Rose..."

The temperature in the room dropped a few degree's as Summer glared at Qrow, "And what would you have called the group then?" Summer asked.

"The Stark Mercenaries." Qrow said.

The room quickly returned to the normal temperature, "Stark? Really?" Summer asked.

"Yeah, the first letters in our names are S, T, R, and Q." Qrow said, "Put them together and is sounds like you're saying Stark."

Summer simply sighed and rolled her eyes, "It would never have stuck." Summer said, "Anyway, Weiss here has asked to join the Rose Mercenaries, as such her training will begin tomorrow morning."

"T-training?" Weiss asked, "But I already have training is swordsman ship."

"Yes, but you did say that as a Spellblade you have yet to actually cast magic didn't you?" Summer asked, this caused Weiss to deflate, "But that's not all you'll need to be trained to do around here."

"It's not?" Weiss asked.

"Nope." Yang said from across the table of Raven, already prepared to make a grab for the turkey, "You see, you also need to know how all of us fight, more or less because some of us like to keep our real potential hidden, Mom." Yang said that last bit glaring at her mother, who simply smirked.

"You also need to understand that we keep a high moral standing with our jobs." Ruby said, "We're hired guards and bounty hunters and such, not payed paid bandits."

"And then there are the more minor things." Qrow said taking a sip from his flask, only for a layer of frost to appear on it before he could take a drink. When Qrow realized his booze was frozen he sighed, "You also need to learn some simple cooking and tent making for long trips, as well as understand a bit out mercantile."

"Mercantile?" Weiss asked confused, "What does selling things have to do with being a mercenary?"

"Nothing really." Tai said looking over at Qrow who was desperately trying to thaw his booze, "But Ruby does make a lot of weapons, and we normally sell off the weapons we don't use, this get's us more money and brings us closer to the locals so they're a bit more trusting of us."

"Oh." Weiss said, "I suppose that makes sense. Your funds are only finite, and I'm guessing jobs aren't all that common."

Summer then cleared her throat catching everyone's attention again, "Well while that is true Weiss, the recent activities of Grimm and the White Fang has been going up lately and Vale Knights aren't willing to split up so much, as such we've been getting more jobs as of late. Such as the one we we're on today." Summer said, "Anyway, tomorrow at noon, Ruby, Yang, Weiss and... Raven, will set out to Vale to sell off surplus weapons. Ruby, have you melted down any of the White Fang Weapons yet?"

"Only the one's that looked like they were ready to break at any moment." Ruby said.

"Good, sell off any of the remaining weapons that are in fairly usable condition with the rest of the weapons tomorrow." Summer said, "Yang, I want you to take Weiss to get some more clothes please."

"Sure thing Summer." Yang said, her eyes still not leaving the turkey.

"And Weiss after you-" Summer started.

 _THUMP_

"What was that?" Ruby asked as everyone turned to the window the sound had come from, save for Yang and Raven who never took their eyes off the turkey.

Summer walked over to the window and opened it, then reached out and picked up a small owl, "I knew we shouldn't have skipped putting decorations on these windows" Summer said as she put a hand over the owl, causing a silver glow to come from her hands.

When the glow faded the owl righted itself on her hand and hooted, before shifting onto her forearm, that's when Summer noticed a note strapped to it's leg. Summer raised and eyebrow at the note before taking off the leg and setting the owl free into the night.

"What's the note about Sum?" Tai asked.

Summer didn't respond immediately, but soon did, "It seems the woman who gave Port Coral the tip about the White Fang want's to meet us at Vale tomorrow, she apparently knows we set up a stand there every week on Saturday and plans to meet us there." Summer said before putting the note in her pocket. "Now then, let's eat already."

The moment Summer said that Yang and Raven lunged to the turkey, each one grabbing a leg of the bird, Qrow's flask thawed instantly and the Reaper immediately began drinking from it, Tai and Ruby began to vigorously carve up their fish, Ruby inhaling a cookie after each bit of fish, Summer simply speared her fish on a fork and began devouring it and drinking from her cup.

Weiss looked around at the people eating nearby, which was so much different from how she grew up, 'This is just plain barbaric.' Weiss thought as she neatly started to cut up her fish and took a bite.

"Oh, Salmon." Weiss said cutting and eating the fish a bit faster.

[]

Weiss ended up waking up at the first light of the morning, if only because her window was on the wall toward the east where the sun rose.

Weiss stretched out as she sat up and yawned, "I should get some curtains today." Weiss was about to get out her bed after saying this when someone started to bang on her door, causing her to jump out of her bed.

"Weiss! It's time to get up, you've got a good number of things you need to do today!" Summer called from the other side of the door before the banging subsided.

"Oum what did I get myself into." Weiss groaned getting up off the floor and opening the door to see Summer was rather bright eyed for the morning.

"Morning Weiss." Summer said happily, "Listen once you get dressed and have breakfast I'm going to need you to go down to the forge with Ruby to get your new weapon and then head to the stables in the courtyard." After saying that Summer basically skipped away in cheer.

[]

After eating a very simple breakfast of Ruby's strawberry pancakes Weiss followed her into her smithy, where Weiss saw the sabre Winter gave her lying on the table, and a pure white Rapier lying next to it.

"Okay Weiss, I've fixed up that sabre you used, but I don't think it's be a good as t was before in a fight so..." Ruby said handing Weiss the sabre.

"It's fine, I just didn't want to leave my older sister's gift broken in half." Weiss said sadly, she couldn't even tell the blade had been broken beforehand.

"I know, a gift shouldn't be left broken, especially if it's a weapon." Ruby said, "Anyway, here is the Rapier you requested." Ruby then picked up the Rapier and held it out to Weiss.

Weiss slowly took the sword from Ruby and looked it over. A pure white blade lined with Focusing Runes a with a longer than average guard with a quad of spikes on the side with a simple grip that Weiss found very comfortable. Weiss also noticed there were several empty vials in a revolving chamber in the guard.

"What's this?" Weiss asked pointing at the chambers.

"Oh, that's actually a new technique I've been working on." Ruby said, "You see, you fill these six chambers with Dust and by manually rotating the chambers like this," Ruby continued before putting her thumb into a gap in the guard where Weiss would hold the sword and spun the chamber, it clicking every so often, "Until you have the desired Dust type at this little niche here. You can essentially use multiple types of Dust in one weapon."

Weiss looked back at Ruby and the sword in shock and confusion, "You- How- What gave you the idea to do this?" Weiss asked.

Ruby put a finger to her chin in thought, "Well... I've been trying to create weapons that use multiple Dust types to give them different elemental properties for about a week now in my spare time, but they always seem to cancel each other out if I put in two different types so that plan was a bust. Then I tried to meld together two different blades into one, each blade with a different element, but that didn't end up working either. So then I figured maybe I shouldn't put the Dust in the blade itself, but in a chamber similar to arrow heads." Ruby explained, "But listen this is still a bit of a trial run on this concept so if it doesn't work out just tell me and I'll make it a normal spellsword. I just figured you'd like to have some more options to use seeing as you said you haven't actually tapped into your magic abilities just yet."

Weiss blinked at Ruby's explanation before looking back at the sword, "Thanks... I think." Weiss said looking at the rapier, she wasn't sure how she felt having her weapon be a test for a new concept, 'But I suppose Ruby does have a point about me testing this concept.'

"So, what are you going to name it?" Ruby asked suddenly.

"Name it?" Weiss asked confused.

"Yeah, give it a name." Ruby said like it was the most obvious thing in the world, only to notice Weiss's blank stare and sighed, "Look Weiss, I put a lot of work into this, and a weapon like this is meant to be not only a weapon, but your protector, your best friend, it's supposed to be an extension of yourself. A weapon like that needs a name. So what is it's name."

Weiss stepped back in surprise at how Ruby acted about naming the weapon, so in turn Weiss looked at the sword before thinking, "Myrtenaster." She finally said.

"Okay." Ruby said, her serious gaze vanishing in an instant.

"Okay?" Weiss asked confused, "You're not even going to ask me why I named it Myrtenaster?"

"Nope." Ruby said popping the 'P', "It's your weapon Weiss, name it however you want."

[]

After making a quick run to place the sabre Winter gave her on her bed Weiss walked over to the courtyard and looked around.

Weiss could see a thin layer of grass on the ground, with a few bushes by the entrance gate, which was a large wood and metal gate with a few crystal view ports to look through, but not get shot looking through. Weiss spotted five wood and straw dummies circling a perfect circle of dirt, a training ground of some sort and several tables about. There were far more tables out here than in the dining room, but Weiss simply assumed these were out here in case someone was watching another person train and just wanted to find the best angle while they sat.

Now that she was outside she could see that the fort was well taken care of, moss only grew on the top of the forts single tower, well it's single stone tower, there was a pair of wooden towers a the side of the gate, most likely to give archers a decent attacking position against Grimm or Bandits, which didn't make much sense to Weiss because a spellcaster like Summer can take position on the tall stone tower to cast her spells without risk, especially because spells aren't affected by gravity like arrows and there were no archers to use the wooden towers.

"Yo Weiss, over here!" Yang called, redirecting Weiss's attention to the simple looking stable that was nestled in the edge of the wall, Weiss honestly didn't notice it until now it was so tucked away.

Weiss walked over the the stable and looked around, Yang had hitched a pair of chestnut horses to a cart, while a black horse, and a tan horse stood to the side, "What is it?" Weiss asked.

"Something I think we forgot to tell you, the only horse we have right now is actually a White haired Mare and she's a little temperamental with us whenever we try to ride her." Yang said.

"Then why did you get such a horse?" Weiss asked appalled at why they got such a horse.

"Simple really." Yang said, "Summer found her with an injured leg and brought her here to heal her, she's fine with us, but she doesn't want anyone to ride her."

"That's typical." Weiss said rolling her eyes, "So basically I don't have a horse."

"Pretty much." Yang said, "I mean sure you could try to ride her, but she's currently a little sick so I wouldn't recommend trying just yet. Give her until the end of the week and we'll see about trying to ride her."

"So does that mean I'm supposed to walk all the way to Vale!?" Weiss demanded.

"Nope." Yang said with a smile, "You can either sit next to me on the cart, or you can ride with Ruby or my Mom."

Weiss looked between the horses and the cart, 'Well... I rode on Winter's pegasus once before... but I don't want to ride with a complete stranger on a horse.' Weiss nodded as she made up her mind, "I'll ride in the cart with you." Weiss said.

"Alrighty then." Yang said, "Good idea really actually, because Ruby and Mom would probably find it easier to fight on horseback without an extra person on the horse."

"I hadn't thought about that actually." Weiss mumbled, "So let me see if I got everything right, we're selling off Ruby's weapons, buying me some new clothes, picking up the replacement books for the ruined library, and meeting up with someone who leaked out information about the White Fang's plan."

"You got it Weissy." Yang said putting on Ember Celica, "Now let's wait for the others, I've already got the weapons we plan to sell loaded up."

 **[[]]**

 **Alright folks, that's the chapter.**

 **And before someone asks in the comments, yes, there are Pegasi in this, as well as Wyverns.**

 **Anyway I'll see you all in the next chapter.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Alright folks, it's time for another chapter of Rose Mercenaries.**

 **Well guys, it's time for a trip to Vale, which is going to be a bit more exciting than anticipated if I can write this right.**

 **Just as a reminder, scenic details are not my best, but I will be trying.**

 **Anyway I hope you all enjoy this chapter.**

 **[[]]**

"This was a bad idea." Weiss groaned.

Had she known the road was littered with potholes and rocks she would have chosen to ride a horse instead of being in the wagon.

"Oh come one Weiss, don't get all upset because the trips a little _rocky._ " Yang said before bursting out into laughter.

Yang's pun addiction wasn't helping at all.

"I swear I'm going to castrate Tai when we get back." Raven growled as her horse trotted next to my side of the cart.

"Mom's gonna want first dibs though." Ruby said, "Remember when you took the first bath after a long had day?"

Raven shuddered, "Don't remind me." Raven said, "I was sick for a week because of that flash freeze."

"I'm beginning to think Summer isn't as sane as I thought." Weiss said to herself.

"Not completely." Raven said without a second thought.

'What have I gotten myself into?' Weiss thought to herself as the wagon hit another pothole.

[]

The group arrived in the outer walled section of Vale.

This outer ring of Vale was protected from Grimm by a large stone wall, of course, this doesn't protect them from human and Faunus that are smart enough to know how to infiltrate the city. Outer Vale was home to farmers and merchants, most people don't live in this portion, rather this is where everything happens. People in this ring of Vale sell mounts, food, tools, weapons, armor, basically anything that is meant to leave the household.

The inner ring of the city is where people live, its also the place where people sell things that aren't meant to be taken out of the house, furniture and cleaning supplies mostly, it's also where those thing are made.

Buildings in the outer ring and made with wooden logs and roofs while Inner ring building are made of stone.

When Weiss looked around a large open area she noticed there were several stalls that weren't exactly in a pattern, however she did notice patches of dirt that were evenly spaced.

Dirt, dirt, stall, dirt, stall, stall, there wasn't any pattern.

"You're probably wondering why there isn't any pattern to these market stall." Yang said snapping Weiss from her thoughts.

"Well, yeah actually." Weiss said.

"It's simple really." Yang said, "King Ozpin had noticed a lot of Merchant setting up stall in whatever space they could, a lot of them in really bad places, and decided to set aside this plot of land for temporary merchants."

"Here's our plot." Ruby said getting off her horse.

"Good." Raven said, "Now then, Yang you're still picking up clothes for Weiss, I got her measurements last night just based on the clothes that were taken from the storeroom." Raven handed a sheet of paper to Yang, "Feel free to stop by Old Sand Wyrms stables on your way there, I know you're still saving up to buy that Wyvern there you've liked to visit."

"From how much I've been saving I'm positive I'll have enough next week." Yang said putting the sheet of paper in her pocket ans running off.

"Ruby could you go and get the books from the postman? Take the horses with you because that is another cart full of books Summer ordered." Raven said.

"Sure thing." Ruby said as she ran over to unhitch the horses from the cart.

"And Weiss, you're staying here to help me with the stand." Raven said removing several pieces of said stand from the cart, "Come on this is a two person job here."

[]

"Done." Raven said dusting off her gloved hands.

The stand was rather simple, just a large table with a sigh attached to the table with the Rose Mercenaries white rose symbol on it.

"So, what weapons do we set out on it?" Weiss asked looking at the dozens upon dozens of weapons in the cart.

"Just pick whichever ones you can lift really." Raven said pulling a warhammer out of the cart, "We don't exactly have an exact layout plan here."

"I suppose not." Weiss said taking out a pair of longswords and setting them on the table.

"Just make sure you put bows next to quivers of arrows." Raven said.

[]

"Okay, where would they be?" A young black haired woman asked herself as she looked around the temporary stalls, the top of her head was hidden by a bandana and her body was mostly hidden under an open black coat, that showed she was wearing simple leather chest armor, her eyes were a sharp shade of amber and her skin slightly pale.

Her eyes quickly settled on the white rose emblem of the Rose Mercenaries, "There they are." Then she noticed the crowd that had begun to form around it, "This could take a while." She then added.

[]

Yang looked at the thatch roofed stable, they mostly sold horses, but they also had a few Wyverns for sale and on rare occasions they'd have a pegasus or two available.

"'Ello there Yang." said the white haired old man the ran the stable, of course, he had a receding hairline because of his age, he wore a simple linen shirt and pants under a rough leather vest.

"Hello Mister Wyrm." Yang said.

"Please Yang, call me Sand, you visit the place enough to 'ave earned that right." Sand said.

"Yeah, I suppose so." Yang said rubbing the back of her head.

"So, I suppose your 'ere to see young little Shine huh?" Sand said.

"Sand I don't think Shine is very little." Yang said with a chuckle.

"I suppose that's true." Sand said, "Well, Shimmer's in her pen, just like always."

Yang nodded and jogged into the stable, running past the various horses until she found the Wyvern known as Shine.

Shine was a Wyvern the size of horse, and had bright golden scales, with four silver horns on her head, and bright red eyes. As a wyvern, Shine had two legs with clawed four toed feet, and instead of arms had two wings of leathery skin with a sliver talon on each of them.

"Hey there Shine." Yang called.

Shine lifted her head toward Yang and crooned in excitement, she rose up from her bed of hay and hustled over to Yang started to nuzzle her.

"I missed you too Shine." Yang said rubbing the wyverns head, "Don't worry, next week I'm positive I can afford to buy you off the Sandy old man here." Yang punned.

Shine huffed in joy, not at Yang being able to purchase her soon, but because of the pun Yang made.

"Heck, if sales go well today I might even be able to buy you tonight." Yang said.

Shine crooned in happiness and licked Yang's cheek.

"I know girl, I love you too." Yang said, "Normally I'd stay a bit longer, but there's this new girl back at the fort that I need to get some clothes for."

Shine crooned in sadness before licking Yang again.

"Alright girl, I gotta go now, but I promise that the moment I can afford it I'm riding straight back to Vale to come get you." Yang said rubbing the Dragons head.

What Yang and Shine weren't aware of however, the Sand was watching from a distance going over his record books, "Hmm... I don't sell my wyvern's to people they don't like." Sand said to himself, "And Shine doesn't like anyone but Yang... Based on my income... I suppose I could let go of Shine at a discounted price."

[]

"I never realized you guys were so popular." Weiss panted as she set the last three weapons on the table, a cleaver, a knife, and a katana

Raven simply chuckled as a random person quickly bought the knife, "Yes, we get that a lot actually."

A mere moment later a woman walked off after buying the cleaver.

That's when the black haired woman walked up, "Rose Mercenaries right?" She asked.

"Yes." Raven said cautiously, "Who are you?"

"Blake Belladonna, I'm the one who warned Port Coral of the White Fang attack." The woman said, then she picked up the katana, "How much?"

"Depends." Raven said, "What did you want to talk to us about?"

Blake nodded and put the sword down, "I'd like to join your group." Blake said, "The Vale Knight's probably wouldn't accept someone like me, and I've heard good things about the Rose Mercenaries."

"Why wouldn't the Vale Knight's accept you?" Raven asked crossing her arms.

Instead of responding Blake opened her coat, revealing a set of lock picking tools hidden in said coat.

"Ah, a Thief." Raven said with a smirk, "I suppose that would be a good reason the Vale Knight's wouldn't accept you. They would barely let me into the training program, I doubt they'd let a Thief into the program."

"What if she's just trying to rob us in the night?" Weiss asked, "A Thief is a Thief, no matter how you look at it."

"I understand you're worry miss." Blake said holding up her hands, "But I promise you that I won't try to steal anything unless it's from an enemy or you need me to."

"Besides, it's not like she could get away stealing from us anyway." Raven said with a smirk, "Every time the sun goes down Summer sets up a barrier around the fort. The only thing that can get through that barrier are normal animals."

"What if someones out of the fort when the barrier goes up?" Weiss asked, this is something she really wanted to know.

"Then I hope you brought some camping gear, because you'll be magically locked out." Raven said to Weiss, then she turned to Blake, "So then Blake, what makes you- Oh, welcome back Ruby, you missed the sales." Raven got caught off track in her thoughts as Ruby returned with a wagon of books.

"Aw man." Ruby pouted, "Why were there so many people at the bookstore today."

"Bookstore?" Blake asked as her bandana bulged upward ever so slightly.

"Don't let it bother you Ruby." Weiss said, "Anyway, this is the woman who ratted out the Fangs that were attacking Port Coral."

Ruby turned her head to Blake, "Hi there, I'm Ruby Rose." Ruby said leaning almost off the cart and held her hand out to shake it.

"Blake Belladonna." Blake said shaking the hand, "In fact, I don't think I got your names." Blake added looking at Raven and Weiss.

"Raven Branwen." Raven said, "And the young woman next to me is Weiss, another new recruit."

"Pleased to meet you." Blake said.

"Yo Weiss, I got your clothes." Yang said returning to the cart, then she noticed Blake, "She a customer? Cause we don't have much left to sell."

"No Yang, she's the informant." Raven said, "And she wants a place with the Mercenaries."

Yang immediately turned back to Blake and looked her up and down, "Hmmm, I approve, I think she can join." Yang said.

"She's a Thief." Weiss called out.

"That's even better." Ruby said, "Mom's lock breaking spells take too much time and magic and you guys have always complained about it during your expedition runs."

"It is annoying." Raven said with a huff, "You can come with us, we'll see what Summer has to say."

"Well then Blake, might as well introduce myself." Yang said holding her hand out, "Yang Xiao Long, Raven's kid."

"Nice to meet you." Blake said shaking Yang's hand.

"Bandits!" A woman cried out.

"That's bad." Blake said reaching into her coat and pulling out an iron cleaver.

"You're gonna need more than that." Raven said pulling a long box off the wagon that once held the weapons and opened it to reveal everyone's personal weapon, "Take the katana you were looking at earlier."

Blake nodded and put her cleaver away and took the katana and attached the sheathe to her hip and drew the katana.

"Let's go everyone!" Ruby said lifting Crescent Rose and jumping onto her horse and riding toward the front gate.

[]

Meanwhile at the front gate, someone was already fighting off the bandits.

And not doing too good a job at it.

"Hragh!" A young man shouted swinging his sword at a bandit and hitting the fat bandit in his unarmored gut.

The young man had short blonde hair and was wearing a steel breastplate with shoulder guards over a cotton shirt shirt and leather greaves with steel knee guards. In his hands was a steel sword and shield, the shield bearing a symbol of two yellow crescent moons on it.

"Ho man." The boy said, "There are a lot of these guys."

The man looked up to see another Bandit charge toward him with his axe raised, the boy raised his shield to take the blow, only for it to prove unnecessary as the Bandit was cut clean in half from a scythe.

"Whoa." The boy said surprised at the turn of events and looked at the Reaper on the horse.

"You okay?" Ruby asked worried.

"Y-Yeah." The boy said, "I'm just... not as prepared as I thought I was for a fight."

"Trying to get into the Knights?" Ruby asked.

"Yeah, names Jaune Arc." The young knight said.

"Ruby Rose, of the Rose Mercenaries." Ruby said, "Why don't we talk more after this?"

"Y-Yeah, good idea." Jaune said, "But how am I gonna survive this!?"

"There is room on my horse." Ruby offered.

Jaune stared at the horse for a moment before nodding and getting on the horse.

[]

Yang punched a bandit in her path with enough force to snap his neck.

She had a destination in mind at the moment.

"Sand!" Yang shouted running into the stables.

"AAAAAHHHHH!" A man that was definitely not Sand cried out in pain, Yang turned to see a bandit caught completely on fire running out of the stable.

Behind that bandit Yang saw Shine was trying her best to hold up a section of collapsed stable that was pinning down Sand.

"Sand!" Yang called out in worry running over to the trapped man and lifted the collapsed portion of wood just enough to pull the old man out. Once he was freed Shine bit onto the old mans vest and dragged him to a more stable part of the stables, "Good girl Shine." Yang said petting the Wyvern.

"Yang..." Sand wheezed out coughing a bit.

"Stay here Mr. Wyrm, and don't talk." Yang said.

"Water..." Sand said.

"Oh right." Yang said pulling out her travel bottle and pouring some of the water into Sands mouth.

"Yang I'm not helpless 'ere I can drink from a bottle." Sand snapped, but not annoyed.

"Just wanted to make sure." Yang said standing up.

"Hold on a second young lady." Sand said, "I think you should take Shine with you."

"I couldn't." Yang said, "Wyverns are expensive, I don't want to hurt your business."

"Please, you'd be doing me a favor." Sand said, "Shine here doesn't like too many people and too many others just pass right by her. At this rate I can't sell her."

"But... didn't you pay a lot of money for her?" Yang asked.

"Not a cent." Sand said, "I found this little girl as a mere hatchling with an injured leg, her parents were killed off by Grimm. Healer her up myself, heck you first saw her not too long after I brought her here."

"Wow, no wonder she likes me so much." Yang said as Shine nuzzled her, "Are you sure?"

"Of course, I catch you before you leave to give you the paperwork." Sand said.

[]

Weiss sharply stabbed a Bandit in his side before she spun and attempted to activate the Dust in her weapon, Ice Dust to be exact. She stabbed the bandit and he quickly turned to ice.

"Wow, it really works." Weiss said looking at the blade before looking back up at her next opponent.

Said opponent got ready to charge Weiss, only to get his arm cut off by Blake's cleaver, then was impaled through his heart by Blake's katana.

"That cleavers stronger than I thought." Raven said beheading another bandit before cutting the leg off the next and stabbing her heel into his eye.

"It used to be a lot better." Blake said slightly put off by Raven's brutality, "Are all Dark Knight's so brutal?"

"Hell if I know." Raven said flicking her sword clean of blood, "Might just be me, but I've never met any other Dark Knight so that's up in the air."

"I'll bet." Blake said throwing her cleaver at the last bandit in the area, the weapon lodging itself in the middle of the bandits forehead.

"Where the hell are the Vale Knights?" Weiss demanded.

As if on cue said knights rode into the area and quickly began to scour the area for the remaining bandits.

"Typical." Raven said sheathing her sword, "The Knight's show up once we've done all the hard work."

A few minutes later Ruby arrived with Jaune on her horse. "Man, these Knights are slow." Ruby said.

"They've gotten pretty lax that's for damn sure." Raven grumbled, then she noticed Jaune, "Whose the kid?"

"J-Jaune Arc miss." Jaune said getting off the horse, "I-I've trained to be a Knight for years now but they wouldn't accept me."

Raven raised an eyebrow before looking Jaune over, "Who's trained you?" Raven asked.

"I've mostly trained myself, studied the technique, but I've never really had time to practice it." Jaune answered.

Raven sighed, "Now they won't even accept untrained people?" Raven groaned, "Alright, come with us and let's see what Summer says, if nothing else she'll at least let you stick around until you can hold your own in a fight."

"Y-you mean it?" Jaune asked.

"Yep." Raven said, "Summer's just so nice like that." Then Raven looked around, "Where's Yang?"

As if on cue a wyvern's cry filled the area, everyone looked up to see the Wyvern known as Shine land in front of the group with Yang on her back.

"Yang?" Ruby asked.

"Hey Rubes." Yang said, "Look who I can finally take home."

"What happened Yang?" Raven asked.

"Well, turns out a Bandit was attacking the stables and old mister Wyrm let me take Shine here for free for saving his life." Yang explained.

"I see." Raven said, then she looked at the Wyvern, "It's a pleasure to meet you Shine."

Shine crooned in greeting.

"Alright everyone, let's pack up the stand, hook up the book cart to the wagon, and head back home." Raven called out, "We've got two new recruits Summer needs to examine."

"Two?" Yang asked.

"Uh heh... Hi." Jaune said, a little intimidated by the Wyvern so close to him.

 **[[]]**

 **Alright folks, that's the chapter, and now for the notes on the two newly introduced classes.**

 **[Classes]**

 **Thief: While able to hold their own in a fight, a Thief simply prefers to steal from the pockets of their targets, or crack open locked doors of chests. No team of adventurers or Mercenaries is complete without a Thief.**

 **Knight: Perhaps the most straight forward class, a Knight is the perfect balance of offense and defense, sadly a Knight is is rather vulnerable to magic. Most Knight's work in defense of a city of the kingdoms, however there are a few that choose to wander the land to defend those who need it.**


End file.
